Yes, we're real!

It's funny to me how fascinated people still are by the fact that we're from the U.S.

One day we were standing on a corner reviewing our plans and a young boy (probably about 10 years old) came up to us. We asked him where he lived and if we could share with his family. As he was responding, he stopped mid-sentence and moved closer. He tentatively poked my hand as I was trying to write down the information. I looked up at him and he said "Oh, I just had never touched someone from the United States". He seemed very excited to have discovered that yes, we are just like any other person...he soon after ran away. 

Then, another day, we were waiting outside an investigator's house. She wasn't home, so we were waiting a good few minutes outside. Suddenly a group of teenagers ran up, asking if they could take a selfie with us. I was really confused but we accepted. They said it was for their school newspaper or something. I don't really know. The best part was they passed by about 2 or 3 times before actually asking us if they could take the photo. 

As far as the work goes - this week we tried to do more service. As I may have mentioned before, people hesitate to put the hermanas to work. We decided to do surprise service and just arrive at members' houses in our work clothes so they couldn't say no! 2 sisters gave us some small tasks but one still said she had nothing we could possibly help with. 2/3 is pretty good. We'll definitely be repeating that one! 

Yesterday was the primary program in our ward. That thing will NEVER get old. One of the couselors in the bishopbric stood up after and commented on how close the Lord the kids are. It's totally true. Little kids are so easily molded, they're like little sponges. The older we get the harder it is for us to change our attitudes or ideas. The more time we spend in the mission, or in an area, or whatever, the more we think "yeah, I've got this. I know what I'm doing. I've already learned it all". The key is believing in our ability to improve without being prideful. The Lord is always willing to guide us as long as we are willing to listen. 

Thanks for all your love and prayers, 

Hermana Glazier

photos: yet another soccer activity! This time we made zone t-shirts.

me and a completo - the young women were selling them for a fundraiser for their upcoming temple trip

Papa John's Saves the Day

One of my favorite moments this week was a great "hablar con todos" moment. In our mission there's a big focus on "hablar con todos" - "talk with everyone". We try to contact everyone possible in our path. This week we were walking to an appointment and Hermana Meyer found a Papa John's flyer and starting looking at it. You know, just looking ahead to p-day lunch options. A few minutes after, we went up to a woman waiting at the bus stop to talk to her. Turns out she was a member from a different ward that had been inactive for a while (this happens quite often, in all honesty). As we were inviting her to return to church, a VERY drunk guy came up to us. He started asking us if we had any fliers. He was standing so close that the smell of alcohol started making me nauseous so I turned away to finish talking to the other woman. I assumed my companion had handled it as we walked away about 10 seconds later. As we reached the next block on the street Hermana Meyer said, "I totally just gave that guy a Papa John's flier". "Are you serious?!" I turned around to see him very intently examining the Papa John's flier, saying "que rico!" (like "how delicious!"). I couldn't stop laughing the whole way to our appointment. And the best part it, we found another flier afterwards so we can still order pizza if we want! ha.

We also had a very rainy day this week - it was POURING on an off for about an hour. I like the rain, but every once in a while it's inconvenient. Especially when I run right into a street that I can't see thanks to my umbrella (yes, this really happened. It was like something from a classic comedy show). Luckily, right as it started pouring we were close to a recent convert's house that we were planning on visiting. She's a cute abuelita who recently fell on her stairs and is now in bed with a cast on her foot. We visit her pretty regularly, always with the intention of re-teaching her the lessons. We haven't gotten very far though because she doesn't retain very much and she loves to talk. She cracks me up and she loves when we visit her, even if she doesn't get a lot out of the lessons. The last time we visited her we shared a scripture with her. As she started to read I fell asleep for probably a good 5 minutes. Luckily she didn't notice, as she was still reading when I woke up to see my companion trying not to laugh - our dear abuelita was struggling to read and was replacing basically every other word with a completely different word. Oh how I love these abuelitas!

Today we had a "zone activity" - in other words, the elders all wanted to play soccer. We ended up going even though we knew we'd probably be the only hermanas. I didn't even have my tennis shoes because I accidentally left them in the mission office after last week's zone activity. But it was still fun. After a lesson about talents in church I'm determined to develop my sports "talents"! I may not be a natural like my siblings...but I want to try more. Hopefully they'll teach me when I get home!

Well, I'm short on time...I will hopefully have more to tell next week. Love you all, the work is true, stay strong, be good. 

Love, Hermana Glazier

Made a diligent effort to take photos this week...haha. Enjoy!

How Can I Keep From Singing?

That was the title of my mom's email this week and I love it so much I'm repeating it!

It's true - there's so much good in the world that sometimes I just can't help but sing! I basically am always singing something quietly. Even if I can only have hymns and EFY music, I'm still a music junkie at heart! 

Something that I've been trying to master my whole time here is this - thinking positively. That's the key to everything we do here - a positive way of thinking. Believing people are going to say yes. Believing that it's worth it going out that door. Feeling like someone is actually listening as we pray. Knowing that someone really WILL be blessed if they act on our words. And sometimes just smiling and saying "yeah, I'm doing great!" even though you're 1000000000000% exhausted. 

This doesn't mean just hoping or saying these things are true without having any reason to and then doing nothing to make it true afterwards. Sometimes being well means admitting you aren'twell so you can get well. Or instead of just assuming someone's listening to our prayers, askingif someone's really there and then looking for the answer. Thinking positively isn't ignoring problems, it's recognizing they exist but finding the solution and believing it will work. 

I'm not really sure what to say about this week...I don't have a single picture! Uh-oh. I'm having one of those "old-in-the-mission" moments. It's interesting, this has actually been happening a lot - I'm more forgetful these days. I keep accidentally leaving things everywhere. I left my agenda in a member's house, then I left my agenda, Book of Mormon, and cell phone in the pharmacy (luckily the lady was nice and ran out and gave it to me), and right now my running shoes are still waiting for me in the mission office - left them there after a zone activity. My trainer used to do the same thing ALWAYS. It's weird - It's like noticing as you get older how you're becoming more like your parents.

As far as the work goes...we're teaching 2 Mexican girls in our ward - one's a recent convert and her roommate has a baptismal date for this month. It's so weird how different their accent is from a Chilean one! I still don't understand a lot of things they say. I hope I can still use my Spanish after the mission and learn all those little things that vary from country to country. Speaking of that, I'm determined to learn more languages after the mission! I LOVE knowing another language and I feel like it's something I should keep expanding. 

Well, I hope everything's going well over there in the land of United States. I feel very, very disconnected from any and everything new and I sometimes forget that the world hasn't just been on pause for over a year. I'm determined to enjoy my time here while I can - it's kind of great not worrying about anything outside. 

Much love -

Hermana Glazier 

CONFERENCE!

What an excellent weekend. I loved every talk and I am so excited to start working on some of the things we were counseled to do and not do. Most of all I have an ever-stronger testimony that these men and women are really inspired servants of God who know what they're talking about and we can trust. I am so excited to keep telling the people of Chile of the great blessings we have as members of the church!

It's been a busy week but we struggled to keep up with all the work in our area. With a LOT less working time (extra trainings and meetings in the mornings, and General Conference) we're going to work harder this week to make up for it! I'm excited to keep working with Hermana Meyer. Some of the mission has transfers today, but not us! Staying the same for another 6 weeks and we're excited about that. We get along great and work well together. 

I have loved hearing from home about all the General Conference times and family get-togethers! We had a nice little "conference breakfast". We made French Toast. It wasn't actually the best because of limited ingredients and toppings but we loved it anyway! 

I hope everyone's doing well at home! I'm praying for you all! Have an excellent week and keep on saying "I think I can, I think I can" (that's what I've had to do sometimes here and wouldn't you know it, that little children's story actually works!)

Love y'all, 

H'Glazier

Survived!

This was a hectic week - divisions with new missionaries, trying to take care of all our recent converts, less-active members, and investigators while finding new people and working more with the ward (including being in charge of the Young Women's activity this week), and most of all, a baptism! Despite all the craziness I'm grateful for all we were able to accomplish and I know the Lord is helping us an guiding us through it all. I'm exhausted but happy. 

Francisca was baptized on Saturday! She's great. She comes from an atheist family. Hermana Oldroyd was actually teaching her when she was here but she didn't progress too much towards baptism until now. Hermana Meyer said that a little before I got there she recently had decided/discovered that she actually believes in God and had begun to change a lot. Through many great lessons and a lot of testimonies, she was finally able to make the decision to be baptized. Even though her family wasn't supportive and she was very alone in her decision, I know she won't be alone in the Gospel. 

I love knowing that the Gospel changes people and that even if we don't see the results of our efforts right away, there are always people that will be changed by our example. The Lord loves every one of His children and knows what they need and when. 

I don't have much time to write more, just know that the work is moving along like always and that I'm loving it more than ever! Even though it was a very rainy week, spring is in the air for real this time!

Con amor,

Hermana Glacer (as I say these days. I've finally settled on the easiest pronunciation of my name)

Gotta Eat to Live

18 de Septiembre Chilean Independence Day

And the week of 18 de Septiembre we basically just live to eat. So many asados, empanadas, mote con huesillo, pajaritos, etc. (One day I will make all of these things for you so you'll know what they are). Maybe. It's crazy how I've gotten used to eating this kind of thing. Also, the work was kind of complicated seeing as everyone we should have been visiting was either busy or out of town, including Francisca, who has her baptism scheduled for this week! More news on that next Monday. 

Despite all of the festivities, and even sometimes as a result, we were able to see many miracles this week. My testimony was once more reaffirmed that this work is not ours, but His. The Lord sets everything up, guides us, prepares the people, and if we're doing what we're supposed to he lets us come in an put in the finishing touches. He sometimes puts us in the right place at the right time, helping us know what to say even though we don't know why we're saying it, feeling like we should talk to a person we never would have talked to, or seeing someone change that we never thought would. Especially giving us the strength to keep doing better and giving us just what we need to believe that things will always work out for the better. I love knowing that it isn't all weighing on me and my abilities. (If that were the case we'd all be in trouble). 

Well, love you all, enjoy this week and don't forget about your dear daughter/sister/cousin/neighbor/friend here in Chile!

Love, H'Glazier

Spring is ALMOST in the air

This week I am very pleased to hear that my General Conference excitement is infecting a few of you people over there. And just think - we'll be watching it together!

This was quite the week. 18 de Septiembre (the biggest national holiday here) is coming up and everyone's getting out of classes and getting excited. It changes the work a little seeing as basically all the people we've been teaching left on vacation for the holiday. But we are very excited to keep working and participating in the festivities on the side. Empanadas here we come! 

We even had a zone activity today to celebrate 18 de Septiembre flying kites! It's a tradicion for the holiday so we went to try it out. It was fun even though there wasn't a lot of wind. And more importantly, now I have a great $2 Chilean flag-print kite as a souvenir. We had to buy them during work time on Saturdayand felt kind of dumb carting them around all afternoon, presenting ourselves as missionaries with this kite (folded up but still long) sticking out of our bags...

Last week we got haircuts. We were both very nervous to go, not knowing where or who or how to explain what we wanted. Almost backed out a few times, thinking yeah I can just do it when I get home. But in the end I was just thinking "Okay, I can knock doors, asking people to come in their house, in a far away country, not knowing any of these people, with another north American, without any fear. And I'm chickening out of just a simple haircut?" And we went! Final verdict: next time I'll just wait until I get home. I just wanted a trim and side bangs (they had grown out really long). The lady didn't understand what side bangs means I guess and cut them straight across saying "but you can style them how you want afterwards". Doesn't exactly work that way...so here I am with new bangs! It was weird at first but they're "growing" (ha) on me. My companion also ended up with hair a LOT shorter than she wanted. Looks like we need to start studying more vocabulary that doesn't have to do with the Gospel. 

This week we had a great service activity with all the missionaries around Concepción. We helped clean out the cemetary (taking out all the dead flowers and everything). The cemetary is gigantic and so cool! Definitely would be creepy at night, but I enjoyed it. Not to mention I got to use the Mormon Helping Hands jersy thing for the first time in my life! Service feels so more official with those things. 

I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty exhausted these days. There's a lot of work to do here and I always feel pretty behind schedule (there are so many members, new converts we should be teaching, investigators, etc.). But I'm learning a little every day. I think that's how life is always going to be...we're never going to be able to do everything that we want to, We're here to learn how to prioritize. And if we put what the Lord wants first, things will work out fine.

Thanks for all, 

Hermana Glazier

p.s. I'm here until February 10 so you can still send me mail until like...the end of January. Just in case anyone was wondering.

p.p.s. we're making up for the not having many photos last week...